Topic: So this is what I want to do (smart people read this)

[Hexx]

Is it possible to have fighters replicated so that you
A) either have an awful lot of them
b) have an unlimited number of them

The idea I'm toying with doesn't actually have to have more than the current 4x4 groups of fighters
on the board at one time.
But once one is lost, is there anyway to have a new one generated from the ship?
(basically I'm looking for a way to fire phasers from "drones" if possible..)

[FPF-DieHard]

No

[Hexx]

No

Not really what i wanted to hear..
anyone else have a better answer?

[GDA-S'Cipio]

No

Not really what i wanted to hear..
anyone else have a better answer?

Technically impossible.  About the closest you can get is PF's which carry PF's which carry PF's which carry........ well, you get the idea.  But they would launch (and continue luanching) when they wanted to, not when you wanted them to, and a lag-filled computer crash would be sure to follow.

There is no way to resupply expendables during a mission.  (Outside of a very esoteric mission script, and I'm not even sure that is possible.)

-S'Cipio

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

No

Not really what i wanted to hear..
anyone else have a better answer?

Technically impossible.  About the closest you can get is PF's which carry PF's which carry PF's which carry........ well, you get the idea.  But they would launch (and continue luanching) when they wanted to, not when you wanted them to, and a lag-filled computer crash would be sure to follow.

There is no way to resupply expendables during a mission.  (Outside of a very esoteric mission script, and I'm not even sure that is possible.)

-S'Cipio

translation = No!

[Pojo92]

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but don't fighter squadrons regenerate to full strength, i.e. 4 fighter, status when recalled and allowed to "repair", even where the squadron has taken damage and one or more of the fighters has been "destroyed?"

I am sure I have seen this happen in recent DII campaigns.

Or are you talking about something completely different?

[Father Ted]

Erm, I didn't unnerstand the anglish.

Talk umerican ro canadaina next time....

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Yes, it is possible, but just not right now.

[GDA-S'Cipio]

Yes, it is possible, but just not right now.

I'm guessing this is where the "very esoteric mission script" comes in?

-S'Cipio

[Green]

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but don't fighter squadrons regenerate to full strength, i.e. 4 fighter, status when recalled and allowed to "repair", even where the squadron has taken damage and one or more of the fighters has been "destroyed?"

I am sure I have seen this happen in recent DII campaigns.

Or are you talking about something completely different?

What you described was true prior to the current patch (or was it the patch before?  Or is it the current limits on crews? Or is it OP+?).  No matter...the answer to Hexx's Q, good or bad, was a no.

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Yes, it is possible, but just not right now.

I'm guessing this is where the "very esoteric mission script" comes in?

-S'Cipio

lol... actually, its a combination of scripting and one of either using SQL and/or fixing the scripting API, preferably the latter, but both would be even better. Unfortunately the latter depends largely on the client code. Without the client code, SQL could be used as a workaround for a lot of things, but then they would only work on a SQL server with mission scripts specifically written to run on SQL servers (and also requiring some other additional programming), hence the simpler explanation.

Basically, if the mGetFighters() function was working in the API, the mission script could determine what fighters were actually on any given ship or base, and as they were deployed, we could simply then use mSetFighters(), which works, to keep adding more fighters to a ship or base. What we can do quite easily however, at the moment, is create a fighter group in the same way an AI ship is created, but such a fighter group is independant of any carrier. Possible uses for this include, for example, a planetary assault where the planet appears to send out a new fighter squad say every 5 minutes, or an armada of fighters launched from a hypothetical carrier that is off the map appearing at the map edge and moving in to attack something (eg. the Cylon fighter armada at the beginning of Battlestar Galactica). Again to really make such scenarios work though, we need to be able to choose fighters from the fighter list appropriate for the mission and era, which currently has a problem because of another drawback in the API. Currently, the API does not set the year date in the mission script, so the mission script has no way of knowing directly what game year it is (which is the cause for ships appearing out of era when using the create ship methods for AI). Magnum Man's shiplist utilities in the API are excellent for choosing the precise AI ship we want, and thus perfect for GSA, unfortunately in a D2 campaign, we still run into the problem of not knowing what game year it is. We could possibly use SQL to retrieve the game year from the database via the mission script, and so SQL mission scripts (with a suitably programmed interface connecting scripts to the DB) would allow us to do all the above, but then it would only run on a SQL server.

So... there you have it! Arent you glad you asked now... lol.